


Crystal Clear

by deadcandance



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
Genre: First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13745991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadcandance/pseuds/deadcandance
Summary: The night before his graduation, Eli finds that he's not as happy as he expected to be.





	Crystal Clear

**Author's Note:**

> I am catching up with Rebels and I fell head over heels with Thrawn! So I read his newest comic and I am currently reading Timothy Zahn's novel.  
> This is the result of me loving the relationship beetween these two and being the die hard shipper that I am.  
> I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did writing it and I hope there won't be many mistakes.  
> Thank you in advance for reading!

Eli turned on his bed one more time. He then let out a faint sigh as he realized that he probably wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon.

It was the night before his graduation. Many thoughts crowded his mind and prevented him from getting a few hours of well-earned and much-needed rest.

He’d done it. Despite all the odds being against him, he’d managed to graduate from Royal Imperial. That thought alone was enough for a smile to light up his face. He was finally going back to his planned career, hopefully without further detours.

With him not immediately realizing it, Eli’s eyes were now staring at the glow of a datapad brightening the small quarters he shared with Thrawn. The path he had so carefully programmed had taken an unexpected turn because of him so it should’ve been more than natural for Eli to feel relieved at the thought of not seeing the Chiss anymore, but with that possibility now becoming more real he could not help but feel a certain weight forming in his heart.

Yes, Thrawn was the reason why he’d been taken away from Myomar in the first place and then threw in an environment where he didn’t belong at all, among people who despised him and looked down on him. But it was also true that he hadn’t been alone in dealing with all that because Thrawn had always been by his side, sharing his same — if not even worse due to his being an alien — fate.

And now Eli was going to be alone again.

He remained silent for a while, listening to the weak sound of fingers tapping on a screen, meaning that he wasn’t the only one still awake.

“Thrawn?” he called, leaning a little further from his bed to try looking at the alien on the bed beneath his.

“Yes?” he answered, the tapping sound ceasing suddenly.

The question had been on Eli’s mind for a while, especially with the graduation day approaching. Eli knew for sure his parents were coming to Coruscant to join him and they would spend that special day — or, at least, part of it — together. Thrawn, on the other hand, had nobody. And Eli wondered … had he a family he was separated from because of his exile? Did he miss them?

Thrawn wasn’t exactly the type of person to share things about himself and his life, yet he seemed to know everything about Eli.

“Can I ask you something? It’s … personal, so don’t feel forced to answer,” he said.

The alien was quiet for some time, but when he replied his voice didn’t show anything but his usual composure.

“You can ask.”

“Do you have a family back on your home planet?”

There was silence again, but this time it was longer and more intense. Eli feared to have crossed an invisible line, upsetting him.

“I do,” Thrawn said and if he was nostalgic, he did a good job at hiding it “I left my parents and my brother on Csilla.”

Eli was surprised Thrawn actually answered him and he found himself wanting to use that opportunity to know more about his mysterious roommate.

“A brother? Really? Is he younger or older than you?”

“We are twins.”

All Eli’s previous worries had faded by now: all that was left was a pleasing sense of peace. Eli did no longer feel nervous and he only wished to talk more to Thrawn.

He climbed down from his bed and looked at the Chiss’ tall, muscular figure lying on the little bed, with his datapad resting on his chest. He glanced up at his face, but before he could say anything, Eli asked:

“Can I sit here with you?”

Thrawn stayed quiet, but he sat up on the mattress, leaving some room so that Eli could join him.

“Thank you,” he muttered softly and climbed on Thrawn’s bed, giving particular attention to avoid being too close to the young alien, as if he was afraid it may bother him.

“Why did you ask me such a question?” Thrawn demanded.

Eli expected him to ask for an explanation to his curiosity, yet he didn’t know how to answer properly. He didn’t even really know why he wished to know more about someone who was probably going to disappear from his life for good. But he owed Thrawn an answer, so he tried to be as honest as possible.

“I … well, we’ve been together for quite some time now and I feel like I don’t know you at all. It probably doesn’t even make sense to start asking questions now since we’ll probably never see each other again.”

Eli trailed off, feeling that odd weight on his chest one more time. Had he really become so used to the Chiss’ presence in his life that the mere thought of losing him was almost painful?

“Is that what you want, Cadet Vanto? To never see me again?”

He was abruptly brought back to reality by Thrawn’s voice. Eli turned his head and found his crimson eyes already staring at him and he felt his face becoming warmer. He hoped the datapad’s dim light couldn’t be enough to reveal he was actually blushing.

For a brief moment Eli’s eyes glanced at Thrawn’s thin lips before taking them away, feeling ashamed of his own action.

Thrawn didn’t seem to notice and if he did, he made no mention of it.

“Something troubles you?”

It all happened fast and all of a sudden and it was like Eli watched himself act from the outside: his hands reached Thrawn’s face, feeling his sharp features under his fingertips. Before the Chiss even had time to react, Eli pressed his lips against Thrawn’s. He felt a wave of heat flowing through him, as if his whole body had been on fire.

When they parted, Eli couldn’t bring himself to look at Thrawn. What the hell was he thinking? Yet, under all the layers of shame and confusion, he could feel something positive, something good: happiness.

It all suddenly became clear, almost like that kiss unlocked something that had always been stored somewhere in his mind: what had been truly troubling him during these last days was indeed the thought of leaving Thrawn. In spite of everything that the alien had brought — unwillingly or not — into his life, Eli knew he was not ready to say goodbye.

He’d been growing fond of Thrawn’s cryptic and calm way of speaking, of his apparent apathy towards everything, but mostly of all the subtle changes in his expression, invisible to the eyes of others nut not to Eli, who had learned how to spot and read them with time.

He finally raised his gaze to see Thrawn watching him, a small smile curving the lips he had just tasted.

“I guess this answers my first question,” he observed.

He didn’t seem annoyed or angry. In fact, Eli was pretty sure he looked … amused.

“I’m sorry,” he heard himself say “That was stupid … I shouldn’t have …”

Surprisingly, Thrawn interrupted him by taking his hand. Eli looked at their interlaced fingers and smiled, the clouds of worry clearing his mind.

“You managed to surprise me. That doesn’t happen much,” Thrawn said, his voice low but firm.

“Is that so bad?” Eli retorted.

Thrawn responded by kissing him.

And as Eli closed his eyes and tilted his head to deepen that kiss, what Thrawn meant became crystal clear.


End file.
